Scott Dixon. Ganassi, Thermal Club test, 2023

IndyCar will judge fan reaction before committing to more Thermal Club races

IndyCar

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IndyCar’s CEO says the series will heed the reaction of fans to its first event at the Thermal Club this weekend before deciding whether to hold more.

The private club in California will host the series’ first non-championship round for 16 years, starting on Friday.

IndyCar held a pre-season test on the 4.935km, 17-turn course last year. It is to return for a further test and has added a non-points contest with a $1.7m (£1.3m) prize fund involving qualifying, two heats and an ‘all-star’ final.

The event was originally conceived as a Pro-Am contest. Each IndyCar driver was to be paired with a Thermal Club member and their shared rankings determined by the IndyCar race plus a separate sports car race for the club members. The latter was dropped, though club members will still receive a share of the drivers’ winnings.

Thermal Club, 2023
Some drivers believe overtaking could be difficult at the track
IndyCar CEO Mark Miles said the event came about due to the availability of the track, convenient television broadcast timings and a gap in IndyCar’s schedule arising from the loss of its race at Texas Motor Speedway.

“We did a two-day open test there in February,” said Miles. “This is something that we always do in the pre-season. So we just really moved that to this weekend.”

“We had an opportunity on the calendar in the spring and Thermal had the kind of climate that seemed like it could work,” he added. “I think all the teams had a great experience there for our first visit last year. So it seemed like it just made sense.”

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The Thermal Club was created by Tim and Twanna Rogers and opened in 2012. “The Rogers’ family has been phenomenal to commit and to work through how this can be a good thing for them and the members of the club as well as IndyCar and especially our team,” said Miles.

Jack Harvey, RLL, IndyCar testing, The Thermal Club, 2023
Feature: How IndyCar’s no-points, million-dollar ‘made-for-TV race’ will work
“I’m excited to see this format,” he added. “I’ve never been to a heat race before or an all-star race of this type and, I think it’s just going to be sensational to see what happens.”

As The Thermal Club is a private venue it doesn’t have facilities for a large crowd to attend. The event has been conceived as a ‘made for television’ spectacle.

Miles said the series will consider the reception from fans and others to the novel format and new venue before committing to a return.

“We will have our ear to the ground with our key stakeholders,” he said. “First of all, I think the Rogers have to like it. It has to be a good experience for them as the owners of the club. I’m sure that the club members’ attitudes will be reflected in Tim Rogers’ attitude. So that’s an important, fundamental early thing.

“We’ll see how fans react. We’ll have a good sense from social media on the fan reaction to the racing. There’ll be some of our sponsors out there, teams, obviously, team owners will be out there.

“We’ll just take everybody’s temperature after the fact. I know the temperature was really in a good place after the test last year. People really enjoyed being there. Maybe raised some questions about the racing. I hope we’ve addressed them and we expect to have a really good weekend that people enjoy.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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9 comments on “IndyCar will judge fan reaction before committing to more Thermal Club races”

  1. CD (@clipperdael)
    20th March 2024, 10:53

    I guess I’ll tune in for the races on Sunday evening, Euro time. If they’re decent little scraps that’s great, and if the event turns out to be terrible and cringeworthy then I suppose I can always do something else instead as it has no consequences for the championship.

  2. I don’t get the treatment of this event by this website. There’s more articles on it than the actual race a week ago. Plus the title « 1-million dollar, made-for-Tv » doesn’t give the event justice. All races are made for TV, even more F1. And I’m sure Verstappen earn more than a million per race…
    Anyway, I feel like I heard countless times that F1 should set a non-championship race > IndyCar does it to fill a gap in its schedule and F1 armchair experts trash it under the bus. I don’t get the logic. Remember it was either this or just a testing program.
    People get schizophrenic at times.

    1. What is your point? Just to hate on Indycar?

  3. Of course if their surveying of fans is anything like Liberty’s it will be an absolutely resounding success regardless of how it’s viewed by fans.

    1. I know it’s fun to blame us Americans, but actually– the people who are running IndyCar are way, waaaaay more in tune with what the fans want than Liberty is.

      Penske in particular, if it’s crap, he’ll call it crap.

      My problem is, I’ve read through the rules twice, and I’m not sure what the point is.

      1. 1. It’s a glorified test session; they found a way to make some $$$ off of it.

        2. It’s something to plug a gaping hole in the calendar, due to TMS that was planned went NASCAR instead (hopefully it comes back next year)…

  4. One thing for certain, even if it’s really tough to overtake and a non points race it will be WAY more interesting than any F1 parade.

  5. weird way to have some testing days
    Hope the highlights are good (-8

  6. This is a really really weird event. The announcers keep hyping up the “million dollar challenge” when at best it’s a half million dollar challenge. And then the main event, if you can call it that, was a joke, watching world class indy racers tip toeing their “race” cars for the first 10 laps is kind of a joke. I’m all for more “racing” content but this is not it lol.

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